Program transformation

AUDIO: Ambient music track (happy and bubbly) starts and plays throughout.

VISUAL ON SCREEN: RMIT logo

TEXT ON SCREEN: Program Transformation. Introducing RMIT’s Program Principles to uplift and transform the student experience

PERSON SPEAKS: Professor Sherman Young, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education: [00:00:08]

Any institution understands that the principles upon which you build things are the underlying foundation for everything you do. So, the program principles give us that foundation. They allow us to make decisions about our programs without having to have constant discussions about what we shouldn't be doing. And there are a very valuable place to start.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Meredith Tharapos, Program Manager/Senior Lecturer, School of Accounting: [00:00:28]

Creating remarkable student experiences involves developing capabilities in our students to ensure that they're ready for the work environment that they will enter, which is very contemporary, it's shifting and changing.

PERSON SPEAKS: Professor Matt Duckham, Associate Dean, Geospatial Science, School of Science: [00:00:42]

I think the program principals do frame and a number of ideas that are well embedded in staffing in the university and I think they capture some of the core ideas that I think staff today are already putting into their courses.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Denise Sprynskyj, Program Manager, Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) School of Fashion and Textiles: [00:00:56]

My team in particular has picked up on authentic assessment. We constantly rely on expert opinions from industry. We have panels of experts, whether they come in with formative feedback at certain points throughout the semester and feed back in later into the semester to give students a scaffold.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Nick Brown, Lecturer (Industry Fellow), School of Engineering: [00:01:18]

One of the really critical elements here at RMIT is authentic assessment and everything that I do in my classroom, everything that I get the students to do is something that I've had to do previously in my role. And so, when students say, 'like oh, you know this is interesting, why am I doing this?' Oh, because this something that I had to do. This is the way you would present your reports. This is the way that you'd have you'd have to do these actual activities in the engineering industry.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Meg Elkins, Senior Lecturer, Economics, Finance and Marketing: [00:01:42]

What you really want to do at this is actually go back to industry and engage with industry to find feedback on what you're delivering in terms of assessment and in terms of content, keeping in mind you are an expert in your field, but this is just an added layer that gives you industry relevant context.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Nick Brown, Lecturer (Industy Fellow), School of Engineering: [00:02:02]

There is so many resources out there already, so many people doing good stuff and you just need to make that first step to say 'actually I do want to improve my course, I do want to create a better student experience' and there's so many people out there that are willing to help you and share their ideas.

PERSON SPEAKS: Nancy Everingham, Program Manager, Interior Decoration and Design, School of Vocational Education: [00:02:17]

Doing any program enhancement, we've seen CES scores go up. So, the response from students is really positive because they can see that we are trying hard to give them the best experience that they can possibly get and they feel valued by that I think. It's a really great thing. And then the teachers feel good as well.

PERSON SPEAKS: Professor Belinda Tynan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education: [00:02:37]

So for me, if you've got a great inspiring teacher, if you've got super-duper curriculum that really speaks to the student and their career trajectory and where they want to go in life, you've got great service for our students, and that co-curricular is also supporting them in their journey of becoming full and active citizens, I think we're coming close to having a remarkable student experience.

PERSON SPEAKS: Dr Meg Elkins, Senior Lecturer, Economics, Finance and Marketing: [00:02:57]

I have a lot more of my students that I work with on innovation projects and they say, 'you know that project work we did actually got me my job and I couldn't see the relevance of it while we were doing it, but when I spoke about in an interview, the people that were interviewing me were blown away with my innovativeness, with my depth of understanding, with my acumen that I had beyond just content.

VISUAL ON SCREEN: RMIT LOGO http://tiny.cc/programprinciples